Clutch Bodgery

I met up with my lad at Ludgershall Bike Night on Monday, and he told me his
clutch cable had snapped en-route.

Bike duly got put in the shed whilst a new cable was ordered (will be in on
Tuesday, hopefully).

In the meantime I set to yesterday with trying to effect a temporary repair.
The cable had snapped at the clutch end, right on the nipple.
So I liberated the metal connector bit from a spare electrical connector I
had laying around (basically a snmall metal tube with two screws), and
clamped this on to the bare end. I then hooked one of the cable clamping
screws into the clutch actuator arm, and secured it with a penny washer.

Took it out for a spin and voila, the clutch works again. Hope it lasts
till Tuesday though.

Apparently, I "rock"

--
Dan L (Oldbloke)
My Bike 2000 Honda CB500
M'boy's Bike 1990 Suzuki TS50X (Heavily fortified)

BOTAFOT #140, DIAABTCOD #26

 

Oldbloke says...

True bodgery at its finest, well done. Now leave it there for the next 4
years and see how much more like my CeeBee the TS ends up looking, as
you learn more ways to keep a bike on the road for bugger all money.

 

Lozzo wrote:

Heh, don't think we'll have it that long. Now he's got a full time job his
head is filled with NSR's, TZR's and restricted 400's.

--
Dan L (Oldbloke)
My Bike 2000 Honda CB500
M'boy's Bike 1990 Suzuki TS50X (Heavily fortified)

BOTAFOT #140, DIAABTCOD #26

 

On the RD400 it snapped at the opposite end, right by the lever. I used
the bit out of a 13A plug that you screw the live wire into, with the
fuse holder bit broken off, and just inserted that into the hole in the
lever. Worked fine until I could get a new cable.

It snapped just as I entered London. Riding an RD400 with no clutch across
London is possible, but interesting. It's light enough that you can get
enough speed with your feet to get it into first, and does clutchless
changes fine. I don't think I'd like to try this with the bikes I ride
nowadays, but they have hydraulic clutches. Much better IME, I've never
had one fail (but I guess it'd be an AA job if one ever did).

Regards, Ian

 

It's a generation thing. We mend, they replace...

Ron Robinson

 

Ian Northeast says...

I did a hydraulic clutch conversion on a mate's RD400 once. I used a
Kawasaki slave cylinder and clutch lever/master cylinder and just
drilled and bolted the slave cylinder onto where the original clutch
cable went into the left hand casing. It was surprisingly easy to do and
made the grabby clutch RDs always had alot nicer and lighter to use.

 

Bozzin'!

 

Safe.

 

Bostin

 

I always thought that was just part of the character

Snapping the cable was a bit excessive though. Probably my fault for not
lubing it enough to be fair.

BTW another RD400 mod I saw once was water cooling one. I don't suppose
you ever tried that did you?

Regards, Ian

 

Ian Northeast says...

I once owned some Fahron watercooled RD400 barrels, but despite 3 years
of searching I couldn't find a cylinder head. I sold them, and then
found two brand new heads a year or so later. I'll bet you can't imagine
just how pissed off I was.

 

Bloody thing broke again last night.
Anyway, hopefully the new cable will be in today.

Bike needs a bloody good fettle, as my lad starts full time work later this
month and intends commuting on it.

--
Dan L (Oldbloke)
My Bike 2000 Honda CB500
M'boy's Bike 1990 Suzuki TS50X (Heavily fortified)

BOTAFOT #140, DIAABTCOD #26